More than two thirds of all salad sold in bags by Tesco ends up being wasted between the grower and the customer, according to figures from the supermarket chain.

Almost half of all the items in its bakeries are similarly thrown away, as are 40 per cent of apples, a quarter of grapes and a fifth of the bananas.

Tesco is publishing its total food waste figures today for the first time after gathering information from its suppliers, distribution centres, stores and its customers.

In the first six months of this year, 28,500 tonnes of food was wasted by the supermarket. Tesco will say that this is a small proportion of the 14.8 million tonnes of food wasted in the UK annually at all stages